Niffelheim Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies

Your soul has been abducted by nefarious death priests, and now you are reborn into the harsh wastelands of Niffelheim! In this base building survival game, you’ll need to scavenge for supplies, build up an arsenal, and find a way to reach Valhalla, the realm of fallen warriors. The journey ahead will not be easy, but life is never easy for brave viking warriors!

As one can expect from a base building survival game, Niffelheim has a number of mechanics that you need to know about, and we’ll cover it all in our Niffelheim tips, tricks, and strategies beginner’s guide!

Your First Days

Starting out in Niffelheim can be a little daunting, so we’ll help you figure out your first couple of days. The first thing you should do is to go out and venture through the wilds to scrounge up some supplies. The game starts you out with a basic pick and axe, so you have a way to gather wood.

Go out into the wilderness. It doesn’t matter which way you pick, just explore around until you get the prompt to collect resources. You can also hunt down animals for meat and materials. You’ll also probably come across huge structures – these are most likely dungeons. Don’t go in them just yet, but make a note of where they are.

You can chop just about any tree you see save for a few ones that are in the background. This is how you get timber, and you’re going to need a lot of it, so chop until your axe breaks. Once your axe is broken or your inventory is full of resources, it’s time to head back to base.

The first order of business is to get your citadel up and running, which costs 12 timber and 16 twigs. This will construct the citadel around the center of your base, which protects your workshops and stash from wandering enemies. After you build the citadel, the tower and walls are unlocked, which further improve your defenses. You should get all of them built to at least level 1.

Once your castle has all the necessities, it’s time to work on your workshop. Head inside, and you’ll be in a long hallway – there are two workshop stations on your left and two on your right. Nothing is built yet, so go to the left and look for a door with a red circle and skull on it – this is the entrance to the mine.

Enter the mines and start mining out the crumbly walls to collect building stones. You’ll need these to construct the four crafting stations in your workshop. Once you have about 16 or so, you can head back to the workshops.

Now you can start building the crafting stations. Start with the sawmill first, which is the first station on the left side. The forge is right next to it, and the kitchen and alchemy workshop are on the right side. Your castle is officially up and running once you have all crafting stations built!

Related | Niffelheim Review

The Next Steps

At this point, your character is probably getting hungry. You don’t start suffering from adverse effects until you drop to around 30% satiation, but you should start eating dishes once you hit around 50% satiation just to be safe.

You can eat certain foods raw like berries and vegetables, but they restore more satiation if you cook them into a dish in your kitchen. You can even eat meat raw, but you’ll suffer from diseases, so try not to do this! Cooked dishes don’t expire over time either, so you can make several dishes and save them for later when you’re out exploring.

You can either head down into the mines and start mining for valuable ores to create stronger equipment, or you can go out into the wilderness again and start harvesting some more resources. Either way is good, so do what you like first.

There are a couple of important items that you want to keep an eye out for when you’re collecting stuff in the wilderness. Here’s a little list of things that you should actively hunt for:

• Honey is used for making beer, which is the base item for many of the weak starting potions. Healing potions are very important for boss battles. If you hear the buzzing of bees out in the wilds, that means there is a hive nearby!
• Wool is used to create rope, an important crafting component. Early on rope is required for many upgrades, including expansion chests that increase your storage. You can kill sheep or use traps to produce more wool over time; we’ll go over that more later.
• Various animal hides (hares, wolves, etc.) are needed for crafting certain types of armor. One thing to note is that most animals only spawn during the daytime, though there are some night exclusive animals like wolves.

Using Production Buildings

The two spots to the left and right of your citadel are production areas. You can construct buildings here that will generate materials automatically over time if you provide the right animal or seed. There are three buildings you can choose from: vegetable garden, chicken coop, and sheepfold.

The vegetable garden lets you plant seeds that you obtain from gathering vegetables out in the wild. The chicken coop lets you gather eggs and feathers from birds that you capture in the wild. The sheepfold lets you shear off wool from sheep you capture in the wild.

You only have two construction spots, so you’ll have to choose between the three buildings. For starting out, we recommend the vegetable garden and sheepfold, as this combo will give you easy food and wool. The chicken coop will be more useful if you’re planning on using lots of arrows, as you can collect feathers from it.

You’ll need to capture animals for the chicken coop and sheepfold, and to do so you must craft traps at your workshop’s sawmill. When you’re out in the field, open your inventory or assign the trap to one of your quick slots and use it to drop the trap on the floor.

Try to run at the animal so that they run away from you and into your trap. If a chicken retreats into a bush, simply walk away a bit, and it will come back out. Sheep don’t have anywhere to hide, so they’re easier to catch.

Questing

A large crow will come by your castle occasionally. Talk to the crow and he’ll give you some hints and a small quest. There are many NPCs in Niffelheim just like the crow that will request something from you.

Most of these quests are entirely optional, but they do offer you good incentives. Quest rewards can range from gold to helpful items, so it’s usually worth it to complete them.

Dungeon Delving

The dungeons are the real meat of the game and where you’ll encounter most of Niffelheim’s greatest challenges. You’ll need to brave the dungeons and fight the massive bosses that lie within, as they are the only creatures that drop the fragments you need to reach Valhalla.

The dungeons can be found strewn about the surface world. You’ll find at least two dungeons near your castle, so if you really want to start exploring one you’re free to do so.

The dungeons are built in a multi-layered fashion. You start at the top floor, and you must find a doorway that goes down to the next level. You’ll probably encounter some monsters here and there, so make sure you’re properly equipped. Furthermore, you’ll come across holes in the walls of the dungeon. There is usually poison fog seeping out of these holes, so make sure not to stay around them for too long.

An important thing to keep in mind is to never chew off more than you can handle. Your character will start limping around when they’re low on health, which is basically a death sentence unless you find a way to quickly heal. If you think you’re not going to win a fight, it’s better to run away early to give yourself enough time to escape. Watch for fireflies flying around in the dungeons, as standing by them will recover your health.

As you descend further into the dungeons, you’ll notice that the way back up can be very convoluted thanks to the random generation. You can craft doors at your sawmill that allow you to create a doorway anywhere in the dungeon, which allows you to essentially create your own path. Doors only take boards to craft, so they’re pretty easy to get.

There’s also valuable portal scrolls that create a portal back to your castle where you’re currently standing. These portals will remain even as you take them to and from your castle, making them a great way to get back to a boss room quickly. You can only have one active at a time though, so using another one will replace your current portal.

You can also instantly warp back to your castle for a small fee of 5 gold. Warping can be done from the minimap, and it’s helpful in a pinch if you don’t have any portal scrolls.

Fighting Bosses

Combat is a pretty simple affair in Niffelheim – simply holding down the attack button until the enemy dies works wonders. You can get by with this strategy on regular enemies, but the bosses may require a bit more strategy, depending on your gear.

During your dungeon delves, you may find a large dome-shaped room on the minimap. This signifies a boss room, and there’s a large monster lurking inside. Bosses are very powerful – even the early ones – so make sure you are absolutely prepared to fight them.

Ensure that your satiation is up, have some healing potions ready to go, and pack some extra arrows. Most of the time the boss will come out of its dome and start moving towards you, so take this time to snipe it with your bow. Repeat this until you’re out of arrows, and then move in for close-quarters combat.

Bosses have noticeable wind up times on their attacks compared to regular enemies, and this is because the game wants you to start blocking. You can block with the button above your attack button if you have a shield equipped, and it greatly reduces incoming damage.

Blocking is integral to taking down bosses. The general strategy is to attack, block, wait for the boss to attack, then repeat. Watch your durability as early game gear tends to not last too long. A shield breaking in the middle of a fight is bad news! Prepare well and bring multiple weapons and shields if you’re planning on taking down a boss. Remember that healing potions also heal over time, so it’s better to use them earlier rather than later.

If your equipment is strong enough, you’ll slay the boss! With any luck a fragment will drop, but keep in mind that fragments are not guaranteed. You’ll just need to keep on fighting to recover all the fragments.

Defending your Castle & Ultimatums

Occasionally the game will launch an event where your castle will be raided by a large mob of skeletons. The game will let you know ten minutes in advance when the event is going to happen so that you have a chance to prepare.

If you’re out exploring somewhere, finish up and hurry back to your castle. Load up your tower with arrows if you haven’t already and make sure to fix up your gear. You’ll have to fight off the horde to protect your supplies. If your castle is broken into, your supplies will be plundered!

In addition to the invasions, death priest of Niffelheim will come to you with requests. Witches will also demand sacrifices from time to time. These requests are labeled as ultimatums, and failing to deliver on them will result in either an instant invasion or unnatural droughts. Droughts will devoid the land of any kind of resource, and they last for a couple of days. Needless to say, if you receive an ultimatum, it’s best if you handle it as soon as you can!

Visit the Shops

Travel to the very edge of your starting area, and you’ll be able to travel to the Temple City. Here you can visit a shop where you can buy helpful items. The shop’s selection rotates every five in-game days, so make sure to come back every now and then.

You can also sell items to the shop to earn some gold. If you haven’t been keeping up with the quests, selling unwanted materials is a good way to earn a bit of gold.

That about covers all you need to know to start your adventure in Niffelheim. If you have any other tips or tricks to share, let us know in the comments below!